1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the structure of flat display apparatuses.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Applications No. 2002-357617 and No. 2003-356388, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A flat display apparatus is equipped with a slim, flat display panel, such as a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as “PDP”), a field emission display panel (hereinafter referred to as “FED”), and the like.
For example, the PDP is structured such that a pair of front and back substrates are placed opposite in parallel to each other with a discharge space in between and the periphery of the discharge space is sealed.
More specifically, a reflection-type AC PDP has a plurality of row electrode pairs formed on the inner surface of the front substrate for the creation of a surface discharge (display discharge), and a dielectric layer covering the row electrode pairs. Further, on the inner surface of the back substrate facing the front substrate, a plurality of column electrodes are arranged in a direction at right angles to the row electrode pairs for the creation of a selection discharge between the column electrode and one row electrode in each row electrode pair, and a column electrode protective layer covers the column electrodes. Between the front substrate and the back substrate, a partition wall is formed for partitioning the discharge space into discharge cells, and phosphor layers of the three primary colors (i.e. red, green and blue colors) are respectively formed in all the discharge cells with the red, green and blue colors arranged in order.
FIG. 1 is a sectional side view illustrating a conventional flat display apparatus with a flat display panel such as the foregoing PDP mounted.
The conventional display apparatus has a flat display panel 3 which is fixed by an adhesive sheet 4 to the front surface (the upward surface in FIG. 1) of a chassis 2 seated forward of a rear case 1.
A frame 5 is attached to the front peripheral edge of the chassis 2 and surrounds the flat display panel 3. The frame 5 has an inner flange 5A formed in its front end. A front filter (panel protective plate) 7 is mounted on a gasket 6 placed on the front face of the inner flange 5A, and secured by a fitting 8.
FIG. 1 shows a front case 9 of the display apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a schematic side view illustrating the structure of the front filter (panel protective plate) 7 of the display apparatus.
In FIG. 2, the front filter (panel protective plate) 7 is constructed of an electromagnetic-wave blocking layer (conductive mesh) 7B formed on a glass substrate 7A; an antireflective layer 7C formed on the electromagnetic-wave blocking layer 7B; and an infrared-radiation absorbing and color-tone correcting layer 7D formed on the back surface of the glass substrate 7A.
Such a conventional flat display apparatus is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open application No. Hei. 11-219122.
As described hitherto, conventional flat display apparatuses have a front filter (panel protective plate) placed forward of the flat display panel. The front filter is structured such that a film for preventing the reflection of ambient light and films for blocking electromagnetic waves and infrared radiation generated from the flat display panel are attached to a glass substrate. This structure makes the front filter very expensive. Therefore the conventional flat display apparatuses have the problem of increased production costs.